Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, April 27, 2021

OK, Democratic legislators.  You have the impetus for your reelection campaigns firmly in your grasp. Take it. The $15 minimum wage bill is very popular.  You have but to pass it in the House, and send it to the Governor, who wouldn’t dare veto it. Speaker Pete: You can announce as early as today a Day Certain for the bill to be on the Agenda, quite possibly the only bill on the Agenda.  You can simply tell the Caucus that it is in all of their best interests to vote for the bill.  They can bask in the success, and they can perhaps forestall progressive challengers who otherwise might await them. It’s possible that a few D legislators might go off the reservation, but nowhere near enough to defeat the bill. It’s real simple. Just. Do. It.  If not because it’s the right thing, which it is, but because it is the politically-astute thing.

Second verse, same as the first: The House will hold two days of committee meetings before voting on bills on Thursday. Reminds me of that Reagan quote: “I’ve been told that hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” Oh, well, let’s look at today’s House Committee highlights:

*Betcha haven’t thought of the State Dog in awhile.  (BTW, is the Maypole Dance still Delaware’s Official Dance? Haven’t checked in awhile. That was bipartisanship at its Delaware best–Mike Ramone and Claire DeMatteis’ mom, I can’t make this stuff up, collaborated on that laughable legislation.)  Anyway, HB 76 (Shupe) designates the Rescue Dog as the State Dog.  As it should be. Does that mean that we’ll ‘sunset’ Mr. Peanutbutter, I mean, the Golden Retriever, as Delaware’s official dog? A dog that had nothing to do with Delaware, and, given its druthers, would have nothing to do with Delaware?  Administration.

*Ya don’t mess with Speaker Pete if you’re part of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol.  Their day of reckoning has arrived, in the form of HB 156 (Schwartzkopf).  What if they all strike? Is there a ready source of scab lifeguards?  Will the Giant Rat appear wearing suitable beach attire? (Sorry, between binge-watching BoJack Horseman and some of the things I may have ingested in the early ’70’s, my imagination is runnin’ wild.) Administration.

*HB 170 (Schwartzkopf) gives counties a means of paying for the required reassessments. Administration.

*SB 6 (Sokola):

creates the Delaware Large Capacity Magazine Prohibition Act of 2021. The Act includes clear definitions for the term “large-capacity magazine,” as an ammunition feeding device with a capacity to accept more than 17 rounds of ammunition. After enactment, possession of large-capacity magazine will be a class B misdemeanor for a first offense and a class E felony for any subsequent offense. Those who possess a prohibited large-capacity magazine when this Act takes effect must, by June 30, 2022, relinquish the large-capacity magazine to a law-enforcement agency in this State. This Act establishes a buyback program for large-capacity magazines, to be overseen by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Remember, kids, this is one of the bills that Senators Dave McBride and Nicole Poore (and Cloutier) buried last session. Elections matter. Judiciary.

HB 91 (Bentz) strikes me as a really good bill. It ‘amends Delaware’s Consumer Fraud Act …, to give Delaware consumers and businesses the protection against unfair acts or practices in commerce that the General Assembly intended to give them when it enacted the Consumer Fraud Act’.  A lot has changed since the original Act passed in 1965.  I encourage you to read the entire synopsis to get a better sense of the bill’s scope and intent.  Here are some tangible impacts:

Prohibiting unfair practices will also protect consumers in situations that may not be readily or easily addressed by current Delaware law, such as the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, price gouging during a state or national emergency, and other situations in which consumers are being unfairly taken advantage of and they are unable to reasonably avoid injury. Finally, prohibiting unfair practices will also enable the Delaware Attorney General to participate more effectively and robustly with other state attorneys general in multistate investigations and litigation seeking to protect consumers and remediate harm on a nationwide basis. The act also amends § 2513(a) to add the term “receipt,” to clarify that persons who provide goods or services at no charge to consumers—such as social media companies funded by advertising revenue—are not precluded from being held liable for engaging in consumer fraud simply because they may not directly sell or lease their goods or services to consumers.

I feel pretty confident that this bill is likely an initiative of the AG’s office.

Take a good look at today’s Senate Agenda. Those are some good progressive bills right there.  Progressive–and popular.  Let’s just see how many dead-ender Rethugs vote against SB 105, which ‘allows pharmacists to administer or dispense contraceptives under a standing order from the Division of Public Health.’  But, I digress. The five bills on today’s Senate Agenda demonstrate that elections matter.  It’s official: We have a progressive Delaware State Senate, which continues to pass important and popular legislation virtually every time it meets (virtually).

Hey, why not end on that note? Think I will.